We discovered that there were two other couples staying on our Pisa campsite (Camping Torre Pendente) that we have camped with before on this trip. It is always good to see familiar faces. One couple were from the Netherlands (they have a boxer dog). The other couple, Jacky and Norman, are from Norfolk and also have a dog (I think it is a retriever/poodle mix but I may not have got that quite right – I ‘m sure they’ll let me know). Jacky mentioned that she’d missed speaking to people in English as they have found, as we have, that most fellow campers are Germans. We arranged to meet up for a drink in the bar this evening for a chat.
We had read, and were told by our Netherland friends, that the beautiful walled city of Lucca, a short distance from Pisa, was well worth a visit. With this in mind we took the train from Pisa to Lucca. It was not altogether obvious which train station we needed (there are two different stations for different services in Pisa) but we eventually sorted it out and were soon wending our way to Lucca on the train.
We really liked Lucca on sight and would love to spend longer there. Most people stay in Pisa and make Lucca a day trip. We’d recommend staying in Lucca for a couple of days and making Pisa a day trip. In Pisa, we couldn’t find anywhere that we wanted to eat or sit and people watch, but in Lucca we saw a good number of bars, restaurants and trattorias that we’d have liked to visit again, perhaps in the evening for a meal or drinks. There was also something about the atmosphere in Lucca that we really liked. We stopped at a little wine ship and bought a bottle of Vernaccia (wine of Sam Gimignano) and a bottle of local Lucca wine. We also took a self guided tour of Chiesa di San Frediano which houses the tomb of King Richard of Wessex of England who died in Lucca in 722. Inside and to the right is the chapel of St. Zita which contains the intact mummified body of the saint lying on a bed of brocade in a glass shrine, which we came upon by surprise and felt was pretty gruesome. There is a stunning Byzantine mosaic on the limestone façade (photo below).
Italian style garden (Palazzo Pfanner) Autumn has come (Lucca)
Chiesa di San Frediano Piazza Anfiteatro
Lucca streets
Chiesa di San Martino
Statue of Giacomo Puccini and lovely nice looking restaurant, both outside Puccini’s birthplace in the Piazzetta Cittadella
We happened to be visiting Lucca a couple of days before the Comic and Games Convention was to take place so there were lots of marquees going up. It was obviously going to be quite a big event for Lucca and we later learned that over 270,000 people had attended. There were some great posters giving a preview of some of the comic based films that are coming up including Wonder Woman, King Arthur and Doctor Strange (with Benedict Cumberbatch in the leading role).
When we got back to Pisa, we stopped off at the supermarket to stock up on a few basics before we break camp tomorrow. Unfortunately, we got carried away and bought a trolley load, completely forgetting that we were on foot. It was quite a struggle to carry it all back to camp, the bulk of the weight being bottles of wine and cans of beer, but we got there in the end. By now it was getting dark so we spent an hour or two getting ready for tomorrow’s departure (putting the bikes on the car roof etc.) then went to the camp bar to meet up with Norman and Jacky for a drink. The television was on in the bar and the barmaid explained that the news was on because there had been an earthquake today in Florence and the tremors reaching Pisa registered 3.8 on the Richter scale – and we hadn’t felt a thing. Maybe we’ve just reached that age where the earth doesn’t move quite so easily.
We had a really lovely evening with Jacky and Norman, just drinking and chatting, and the time flew by. We were still on the patio outside the bar long after the bar had closed, chatting away, until the night security man came and asked us to go to bed as we were making too much noise. We were amazed to discover that it was gone one o’clock in the morning (time flies when you’re enjoying yourselves) but really didn’t think we were making much noise. Anyway, we slunk off to bed like naughty children and agreed it was one to tell the children back home. If you’re reading this Jacky and Norman, thanks for a great evening and we hope our paths cross again soon.
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